The Auxiliary has sponsored two sculptures at the new West Shore Hospital.

Begining in the summer of 2013, the Auxiliary along with the West Shore Hospital Sculpture Committee worked with Art Partnership, Inc. to select sculptures for the West Shore Hospital. The Auxiliary provided sculptures outside the main hospital entrerance and outside the Emergency Department enterance.

The committee visited a number of artists, to see their studios and examples of their work in various settings. After much consideration two designs were selected, one by artist Boris Kramer and another by Jeff Kahn.

The Kramer sculpture, featured above, is the PinnacleHealth logo located at the front entrance to the hospital. It is 10 feet tall, not including the base, and is made of brass and stainless. There is a small version of this piece in the Auxiliary office.

“I am a sculptor. I heat and hand forge metal until it gives form to expressions of human energy as it engages and relates. When heated, metal is extremely forgiving, that’s why I choose it as a medium. Through it, I explore the forces that draw us together and that separate us from ourselves and each other. Having experience both great tragedy and joy in my own life, I want my art to sustain relevant and meaningful encounters.”

Boris Kramer was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1969. Through his world renowned artist father, Richard Kramer, he learned blacksmithing techniques by osmosis; at home, art and metal were part of daily life. In 1995, when he completed a degree in Fine Arts at McMaster University and a Masters degree in Renaissance and Reformation History, he committed his artistic future to metal and joined his father at the forge. As his influences, he cites movements as diverse as rayism and impressionism and states that, for him the forging process is the seeking of form in balance that supports its own meaning. Although he shares, with his father, a fascination with human relationships, Boris has clearly developed his distinct sculptural vision with often a more dynamic style.

Boris sculptures have a home in numerous corporate and private collections and can be found in the many galleries around the world that carry Kramer Sculptures.

Boris currently resides in Harrisburg, Pa along with his fiancé. They live with their two cats and in their free time enjoy traveling and collecting fine art

Gravity naturally makes things fall down. Jeff Kahn's art is inspired by his desire to use gravity to make things stay up.

The Philadelphia native creates kinetic sculptures that explore balance and gravity and the way wind currents interact with them.

Kahn is the artist behind "Transcending Tides", the pair of sculptures that stand by the Emergency Department entrance of the new PinnacleHealth West Shore Hospital.

"Transcending Tides" is part of Kahn's "Unseen Forces" collection. All of these pieces are powered by wind and are free from wires, lights, and technology of all kinds. Composed of stainless steel, aluminum and titanium, "Transcending Tides" explores a very delicate balance between hard metal and imperceptible currents of air, which provide an unlimited range of movement and design.

Kahn's works are exhibited in private collections, corporate and institutional settings and museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC and the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Other exhibition sites include Tyler Arboretum in Media, PA, New York Botanical Garden, the University of Pennsylvania, the Franklin Mint and the Elena Zang Gallery in Woodstock, NY.

Kahn and his wife Jan live on an 18-acre farm in Lehnharstville, where they provide homes to dogs, cats, roosters and rescued race horses.